The ways in which users are able to create digital images through interaction with computing devices continues to expand. However, the techniques used to select and generate colors have not kept pace with this expansion. For example, conventional techniques are limited to selecting a particular hue for a color, which limits functionality that otherwise may be made available to users. Additionally, these conventional techniques typically rely on complex user interface interactions and thus require expertise that make these systems unapproachable by untrained and novice users.
Further, conventional techniques store these colors separately as atomic units and as a result are not able to leverage multiple colors as part of color selection. A user, for instance, may interact with a conventional color picker. The color picker is used to select a fill or stroke color by choosing from a color field and spectrum, which defines the color numerically or by clicking a swatch. A swatch is a named color that is formed from a color, tint, gradient, and/or pattern used. Swatches are typically located and defined through a swatches panel and swatch library that are output in a user interface.
The color picker also includes an option to name and save a selected color as a named color, i.e., a swatch. Thus, the named color is based on values defined through user interaction used to define that color, alone. Although, a previously named color (e.g., as a swatch) may be used as a basis to form a newly named color, this interaction is limited to changing color values previously defined for the previously named color, alone. Thus, conventional color selection systems are not able to employ more than one previously named color as part of color selection, which is limiting and inefficient. Further, conventional techniques are also limited to conventional colors for rendering in a user interface and therefore do not expand from these colors. This limits functionality that otherwise may be made available to users of these conventional systems and techniques.